Max Lucado helps you to look at things in a different light💡 and helps you to change your perspective on your current life circumstances.

Not everything is black and white…there is some grey in there and his books have helped me (and I know will help you) to try to see the good in the situation that you are in until you can get out of it.

The Side Effects of Stress😰

The feelings of stress are very noticeable and I am pretty sure you know what those feelings well…feel like.

You may feel nervous,😱 agitated,🙄 overwhelmed,😰 sweaty💦 or you may even feel a headache come on.

I mentioned this in another one of my blog posts,📇 but when I get stressed out, I get an ocular migraine, nosebleed, and/or have dreams💭 about life-size talking spiders🕷🕸 (yea I know that last one is weird,😳 but it is sadly true).

An ocular migraine is a migraine that causes temporary distortion in your vision and excruciating pain in your head.

These bad boys are NOT fun!🤷🏾‍♀️

I get super sensitive to light,💡 noises,🔊honestly… life in general.🤦🏾‍♀️

I usually have to sleep😴 those guys off if I want to be able to function later.

No thank you!

Figuring Out Your Physical Symptoms

This allows you to know if the situation you are in is about to become stressful.

If you do not know YOUR stress symptoms, try to pay close attention to the way your body reacts the next time you are in one.

If you know YOUR stress symptoms, the worst thing you could do is ignore them.

Unfortunately, hoping these symptoms just go away is not going to work..trust me I have tried!

Instead, things get worst and you end up harming yourself more.

In order to best manage and get control over the stressful thoughts💭 and emotions that come with a stressful situation is to…(this is going to sound weird), but it is to accept your stress. 😰

Yes…

Literally, except that you are stressed out at this current moment in time🕰️ and to be okay with that.

By accepting your stress you are not trying to fight it.

Fighting an already stressed out mind🧠 or body only makes it worse.

You already cannot concentrate so trying to fight the fact that you cannot concentrate will only make you concentrate even less.

For example…

When I first started to get these ocular migraines, I would get SOOO upset with myself.😡

I would literally beat myself up, even more, thinking things like “These migraines are so annoying. Why do I get them? Why can’t I just get a stomachache or something or nothing at all.”

There are two things TERRIBLY WRONG with this statement…

Asking why I get these migraines (I could always get something worst…right?🤷🏾‍♀️)

Asking why I wish I could get a stomach ache instead.

First off…PAIN IS PAIN IS PAIN!

No matter where the pain is…it is still pain.

Also, even though getting these migraines STINK, I have learned (over the years) the best methods to deal with them.

Also, thinking like this only makes your headache worse.

You could be doing something similar to this…beating yourself up or putting yourself down.

This is not helpful in any way.

Instead, it is actually wasting your valuable time🕰️ in coming up with a solution to heal💆🏾‍♀️ yourself.

Anyways, I can go on and on about this.

Once you have noticed a stressful thought,💭feeling or action, it makes it a little bit easier to notice when your stress levels are beginning to rise.

This will allow you to pinpoint📍 exactly what is the root cause of your stress.

When you are in the know, you will be that much closer to finding a solution to either getting rid of your stressors or to find a way to NOT let them mess up your day.

Developing Your Stress😩 Managing Techniques

Now that you can pinpoint📍 (for the most part) when you are about to get stressed out, it is now time🕰️ to learn some useful techniques that can help you to manage these feelings and thoughts appropriately.